Melancholy - what it is and how it differs from depression. What is melancholy? Meaning of the word, synonyms and types of melancholy Modern classification of mental pathologies

A bad mood has been inherent in people since time immemorial. This won't surprise anyone. You never know what can happen when your mood suddenly turns sour. Let’s say you received some bad news, or something as small as this: you accidentally spilled coffee on your trousers (dress). A fleeting incident, but it left an unpleasant aftertaste in my soul. Often in such cases they jokingly say that “I got off on the wrong foot today.”

You can suffer from emotional distress from childhood, when external unfavorable factors, for example, the constant “buzzing” of parents that the child is doing everything wrong, are superimposed on the characteristics of the baby’s psyche.

The ancient Greeks called such a melancholy mood “seriously and for a long time” melancholy. The “father of medicine,” physician Hippocrates, believed that this was facilitated by bile, a specific dark liquid produced by the liver and accumulated in the gallbladder. Its excess spreads throughout the body and has a depressing effect. A person becomes lethargic, passive, does not want to do anything, is overcome by gloomy thoughts, and is tormented by a feeling of loneliness and worthlessness. The theory of melancholic mood was deepened by the Roman physician and philosopher Galen.

This view of the causes of the origin and development of melancholy lasted in European science for almost two thousand years. The English philosopher Robert Burton wrote an extensive work, The Anatomy of Melancholy, in 1621. It examines the essence of the disease from different points of view.

Some of his arguments now only cause a smile, for example, that a melancholic mood is provoked by witchcraft, bad omens and the “wrong” arrangement of stars. But his work is valuable at least because it shows the history of the development of prejudice and medicine in relation to this disease.

In Russia, melancholy was called “spleen” or, in the English manner, “spleen”; it was considered the lot of people from high society. Suffice it to recall Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, who was overcome by the “Russian blues” when he became “gloomy, languid”, and women stopped bothering him. But these are already social signs of the manifestation of melancholic illness, clearly shown in the novel by I.A. Goncharov "Oblomov". With his light hand they began to be called “Oblomovism”.

Nowadays, melancholy is no longer associated with bile. Some doctors believe that individual characteristics and temperament are to blame for this. Even with the slightest failure, such people are deeply worried (affective problems), but their external reaction to unfavorable factors is sluggish. They are emotionally unstable and therefore easily vulnerable. The Russian physiologist Pavlov considered this type of temperament weak.

Others consider melancholy to be a sign of a serious mental illness, caused by depression. The currently accepted international classifications of mental illness (DSM, ICD) characterize the melancholic state as an “anxious personality disorder.” This is already a psychosis that needs to be treated.

It is important to know! If a person is suspicious and deeply worries about his bad luck, this does not mean at all that he is a weak, unsuccessful person. Many famous scientists and creative people were melancholic, but managed to express themselves brightly. For example, Charles Darwin, Nikolai Gogol, Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Causes of melancholy

In psychiatry there is the concept of “melancholic depression”. This is when your personal problems kill you so much that dark thoughts appear, often about suicide. According to recent studies in Russia, up to 15% of working women suffer from this form of mental disorder. Among men, there are 5% fewer depressed people. The difference is small, but it indicates a more vulnerable female psyche. Representatives of the fair sex experience their failures in life longer and more deeply.

The causes of melancholy can be:

• Congenital melancholy. Associated with abnormal intrauterine development of the fetus when the mother led an unhealthy lifestyle. Already at the embryonic level, the “little man” hears everything, and if the woman did not want to give birth, these disturbing thoughts were transmitted to the child. Parents who are too old can also produce a melancholic personality.
• Temperament. When one of the parents or both are melancholic. There is a high probability that the child will be like this.
• Various depressive states. Here we should highlight melancholic depression, which is accompanied by a melancholy, extremely gloomy mood, when thoughts about one’s worthlessness and suicide appear.
• Sudden mood swings. Such factors of melancholia are a sign of bipolar disorder of the first and second types. The difference between them is that with the latter there is no obsessive manic state, which is dangerous because a suicide attempt may be made.
• Mental disorders. Hereditary or acquired during life. Let's say schizophrenia can be accompanied by gloomy thoughts, unsociability, and a decadent mood.
• Severe and long-term illness. It is physically and psychologically exhausting. Heavy thoughts appear, and a depressive melancholic state may develop.
• Old age. With age, irreversible processes occur in the body. A person becomes no longer so fast and dexterous, and illnesses plague him. This affects the psyche. Often the mood becomes sad - melancholic.
• Fear. When, due to mental characteristics, fear is constantly present in the soul. For example, falling in love or getting married, disbelief in something new. This is a serious criterion for a melancholic mood.
• Inferiority complex. When a person does not believe in his own strength, considers himself flawed and gives up his fate to the will of others, this ultimately depresses him. He suffers and suffers from the awareness of his weakness, becomes melancholic.
• Social and ethical problems. Associated with ideological problems. Let’s say the lack of faith in social progress, that people can act according to their conscience and not out of profit, makes a person a skeptic. Such views lead to a decadent mood - melancholy.
• Pessimism. Spiritual development leads to the idea of ​​death, that everything in the world is temporary and short-lived. Ahead of everyone there is only a coffin and a grave. Such “dark” thoughts are nothing more than a serious mental illness - melancholic depression.
• Unfulfilled passion. Let's say unrequited love. It burns, it burns, but there is no response. A depressive melancholic state sets in; if it lasts for a long time, this is already psychosis, which requires urgent treatment.
• Deep emotional experiences. The vast majority of them are negative. For example, envy, sadness, anger, and greed corrupt the soul and often lead to a depressed state.
• Alcohol and drugs. Alcoholism and drug addiction literally kill the psyche when thoughts become dark and incompatible with life. Such people become melancholic and often commit suicide.
• Gambling. A destructive passion often ends in a big loss. Such people are constantly in a bad mood, thinking only about how to get money. Against this background, pessimism and melancholy develop.

It is important to know! Melancholy can have both natural, biological and social causes. However, they all lie in the psychological characteristics of the individual.

The main symptoms of melancholy in humans

How does a “black” mood manifest itself in life? In different categories - children, adults and the elderly - the symptoms of melancholy correspond to their age. Let's look at this in more detail.

Symptoms of melancholy in children

Often a melancholic child clings to his mother because he is afraid to be alone with strangers, for example, in kindergarten. For him, the period of adaptation to kindergarten is very difficult. Parents and educators should be attentive to such “naughty children” and be able to find a common language with them.

On the other hand, such a child is obedient; when he gets comfortable in kindergarten or school, he will not have problems with behavior. The positive traits of little melancholic people include hard work. They are very responsible for the assigned task and always try to bring it to the end. Such children are creatively gifted; if they develop their abilities, they often become outstanding people, for example, writers, artists or composers.

However, they also have weaknesses. They rarely take the initiative, they are reserved, and therefore it is not always possible to “stimulate” them into friendly communication. But if such a child has become attached to someone, he may even sacrifice his interests for the sake of friendship. And then he gets very disappointed when he doesn’t receive the same return in return. This becomes especially noticeable in adolescence.

It is important to know! To prevent the symptoms of melancholy in a child from developing into a real illness, there is no need to constantly scold and reproach him, for example, for being “snotty.” It is necessary to encourage the best character traits of the baby, then he will grow up to be a healthy person, not subject to melancholic attacks.

Symptoms of melancholy in adults

Obvious symptoms of melancholic depression can include: dry skin, dilated pupils, sudden weight loss, poor digestion. Other signs are:

1. Hypotymia. When you are constantly in a bad mood. A person does not see anything good around him and is fixated on negative experiences. He is not able to tune in to positive communication. This is often associated with thinking about one’s own emptiness. Against this background, thoughts of suicide arise.
2. Apathy and lethargy. Characterized by a lack of energy. Outwardly they manifest themselves in complete indifference, indifference to everything, even to pleasures. You can’t drag a person into, say, a movie theater or a restaurant. Digging through his “mental” wardrobe is the most important thing for him. If something is done, it is done carelessly. I don’t feel like eating, I’m even too lazy to go to the toilet. In this case, they talk about vital affect, when all physiological needs are reduced.
3. Feeling guilty. A complex psychologically inexplicable feeling. A person blames himself for everything, even for the fact that he was born. He is “guilty without guilt” and he himself is aware of it.
4. Making problems worse. When difficulties arise out of the blue. For example, going out to the store to buy bread seems difficult, because you need to get dressed and also go.
5. Inhibition of action. Let's say something needs to be done, a lot is thought about it, but a lot of time passes before the matter begins to be resolved.
6. Constant desire to sleep. Even a full sleep does not eliminate the intention to take a nap a few hours after waking up.
7. Poor composure. My thoughts are constantly on the move, and it’s hard to concentrate.

It is important to know! If a person has been in a depressed state for a long time, when it seems that life is uninteresting, then melancholic depression has developed. This requires the help of a doctor.

Symptoms of melancholy in old people

Often older people are lonely, their children have already grown up and “scattered away”, this is also an important factor in their experiences. Any deviation from an already established lifestyle is stressful for them, which leads to the development of melancholic depression.

It is important to know! To prevent old people in their declining years from falling into a melancholy state, it is necessary to give them not routine, but truly warm, human attention.

Features of the fight against melancholy

Inpatient treatment for melancholia is not always required. A slight blues, when sad thoughts overwhelm you, just needs to be shaken out. You just have to follow some simple advice.

Independent ways to deal with melancholy

How to deal with melancholy on your own:

• The main thing is to try to be in public. It is much easier to get rid of your blues among them than in “proud” isolation. It is good for women to do aerobics, and for men to play volleyball or football. I think anyone can do this. Shopping is also a great way to unwind.
• When you don’t want to play sports, you can visit the library, cinema or theater. At worst, read a book at home, watch TV or sit at a crossword puzzle. It's a good idea to start cleaning, it will keep your mind busy.
• One should not forget about sensual pleasures. Intimacy here, of course, comes first. However, good company, great conversation and a treat are also a great way to take your mind off sadness. Just don’t indulge in drinking or, God forbid, drugs. This is the downside of a pleasant pastime; it will only aggravate the blues and create new problems.
• A great way to get rid of melancholy is to support those who feel very bad. “Help others, and you will be rewarded a hundredfold.” Absolutely right! Whoever helps those in need helps himself. Such a person begins to think positively, and this dispels sadness and melancholy.
• The church will help you get rid of melancholy. She is a collective psychologist. Many people trust God with their sorrows and find peace in their souls through prayer. But this is advice for people who believe that they came into this world by God’s providence.

It is important to know! It is quite possible to get rid of melancholy on your own, the only important thing is to really want it.

Help from specialists for melancholy

This can happen in figurative games. Let’s say the patient imagines that the car was in an accident, the windshield shattered, and he barely survived. The car needs major repairs. The psychotherapist brings the patient to the understanding that trouble has happened to him, and his old negative thoughts have shattered and scattered. There is no going back to them anymore. You should not regret this, but tune in to a new wave of thinking that will thoroughly “repair” it.

Without sincere contact between the psychologist and the patient, it is unlikely that the latter will be able to get rid of his melancholy.

Treatment of melancholy in the clinic is the same as for severe depressive conditions. The patient is placed in a psychoneurological hospital and undergoes a set of medical procedures to stop obvious signs of the disease. For this purpose, various psychotropic medications are prescribed. These can be neuroleptics, antidepressants, mood stabilizers. The latter stabilize mood, which is especially important for melancholic depression.

After discharge from the hospital, maintenance treatment is necessary to avoid relapses, which often happens with a long course of the disease.

It is important to know! In the hospital, only chronic melancholia is treated, when “black” thoughts stubbornly push a person to suicide.

Melancholy

(from μελας and κολος - black bile) - in Russian terminology, “dark insanity” is one of the characteristic types of mental disorder. The essence of mental changes in M. is that the subject is in a sad, depressed mood, unmotivated or insufficiently motivated by external circumstances, and that his mental activity is generally accompanied by unpleasant, painful torment. At the same time, ideas corresponding to a sad mood predominate in the mind; the patient’s imagination and memories are directed exclusively at unpleasant things and events, he sees everything in a gloomy color, nothing makes him happy, life becomes painful for him, incentives for activity weaken or completely disappear, he becomes sedentary, indifferent to his most important interests in life, considers the best The outcome is death, which is often carried out by suicide. In many other cases, on the basis of this depressed state of mind, absurd delusional ideas and deceptions of feeling arise. As for the former, they predominantly have the nature of self-accusation: patients accuse themselves of some misdemeanor or crime against religion or morality, often attribute to themselves absolutely fantastic, monstrous actions, and expect the same monstrous punishments for them. In addition to delusions of self-blame, there are also delusions of persecution or the so-called delusions of denial: there is nothing more, people disappear, the world and life are ending, etc. A special type of M. is made up of those cases in which the delusion is predominantly hypochondriacal in nature, for example, patients feel, that all the orifices of their bodies are overgrown, their intestines are rotting, their stomachs have collapsed, they have become wooden, glass, turned into animals, and so on. Deceptions of the senses, for the most part, in their content, are in accordance with the ideas of delirium: patients hear curses, the moaning of children, the rattling of chains, they see preparations for execution, the corpses of their relatives, they smell carrion, sulfur, and snakes crawling through the body. Both in those cases where M. occurs exclusively in the form of an unreasonable depressed state, and when the consciousness is filled with the listed ideas of delirium and hallucinations, at times patients are subjected to attacks of severe melancholy with fear and motor excitement, and under the influence of these attacks sometimes fall into frenzy (raptus melancholicus). Regardless of this, M. is generally accompanied by a decrease in general nutrition, both due to insufficient appetite and refusal of food, and due to painful changes in the processes of absorption, metabolism and blood circulation. Most often, there is also persistent insomnia. With one of the varieties of M. (the so-called melancholia attonita), complete immobility and muscle numbness are observed for a long time. Very often, M. does not constitute an independent mental illness, but only an episode, one of the stages of a complex mental disorder, for example, circular, periodic insanity, mania, etc.; then it does not last long and is replaced by other symptoms. In those cases when M. is a mental, independent disease, it always lasts at least 8-10 months, and then the patient can completely recover. If recovery does not occur, then M. either becomes chronic or transforms into secondary dementia, and the disease becomes incurable. In any case, with a long course of M., the intensity of sad affect and mental pain gradually decreases. A significant proportion of patients with M. die from suicide or from general exhaustion due to malnutrition. With a prolonged course, M. predisposes to the development of pulmonary consumption. The causes of M. coincide with the causes of mental illness in general. Treatment is best done in special institutions.

Wed. Krafft-Ebing, "Die Melancholie. Klin. Studie" (1874); Christian, "Etude de la mélancholie" (1876).

Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - S.-Pb.: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .

See what “Melancholy” is in other dictionaries:

In an engraving by A. Durer This term has other meanings, see Melancholy (known ... Wikipedia

- (Greek, i.e. black bile). An illness expressed in melancholy, without a solid reason, and a gloomy outlook on life. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. MELANCHOLIA 1) sad state, loss of spirit; 2)… … Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Cm … Synonym dictionary

melancholy- The term, which has come down to us since the time of Hippocrates, was used until the end of the last century to refer to depressive syndrome. Kraepelin and others used this term only to describe depression in old age, and Freud... Great psychological encyclopedia

Melancholy- Melancholy ♦ Melancolie In antiquity - black humor (or black bile). Today the word is used in two main meanings. In everyday language, melancholy is a light and slightly vague sadness that does not have a specific subject, but... ... Sponville's Philosophical Dictionary

melancholy- and, f. MELANCOLI mélancolie f., floor. melankolia, lat. melancholia. 1. Gloomy mood; sadness, blues, despondency. BAS 1. Mr. Michaud, they say, fell into great melancolia. 1756. Bekhteev. // AB 3 254. || Sad thoughtfulness, despondency, melancholy... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

MELANCHOLIA, melancholia, many. no, female (from the Greek melas black and chole bile) (book). 1. Dejection, thoughtful melancholy, melancholy. “I drove out melancholy from hearts and instilled in them a disposition for good deeds.” Saltykov Shchedrin. 2. Type of mental illness... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

MELANCHOLIA, an outdated name for depression... Modern encyclopedia

An outdated name for depression... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (from the Greek melas black + chole bile) was used back in the times of Hippocrates and Galen to denote a sad (dull) mood, with a feeling of defeat without objects... Psychological Dictionary

MELANCHOLIA, and, female. Painfully depressed state, melancholy, blues. Fall into melancholy. | adj. melancholic, oh, oh. Melancholy mood. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language by Vladimir Dahl

Melancholy, w. thoughtful melancholy, despondency, quiet despair, without a solid reason, a black view of the world, satiety with life, melancholy; hypochondria. Melancholic m.-lichka w. blues in faces; a person of melancholic build and properties (temperament). Melancholic-sanguine, - choleric, - phlegmatic, a person who combines such a dual constitution and properties. Melancholic music, languid, dull, sad. - a person, thoughtful, sad.

Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Melancholy, -i, g. Painfully depressed state, melancholy, melancholy. Fall into melancholy. || adj. melancholic, -aya, -oe. Melancholic mood.

Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by Ushakov

MELANCHOLIA, melancholia, many. no, w. (from Greek melas - black and chole - bile) (book).

Dejection, thoughtful melancholy, melancholy. I drove out melancholy from hearts and instilled in them a disposition for good deeds. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

A type of mental illness is an unreasonable depressed state, sometimes with delusional ideas (med.). Black melancholy (colloquial) - gloomy mood.

The word “melancholy” usually evokes associations with rain outside the window, a checkered blanket and a glass of hot grog. Well, or cocoa with marshmallows, if we are talking about a staunch opponent of alcohol. Melancholy, "Spleen", "get some ink and cry...". And this concept, in fact, is completely from the field of psychology.

From ancient Greece to modern psychiatry

The term “melancholia” was first introduced by Hippocrates. He explained this condition by an imbalance of fluids in the body - this was a very popular medical theory in those years. Melancholy, according to Hippocrates, was caused by an excess of bile. For many centuries, this concept was the only one; there were no other options for explaining the cause of depressed mood.

Sigmund Frey, the founder of modern psychoanalysis, wrote an entire work dedicated to this condition, “Sadness and Melancholia.” Now the word has become simply colloquial and has changed its meaning. Melancholy is sadness, melancholy, despondency. But this is just a mood and in no way a cause for concern. Previously, this word also meant depression, which is now identified as a separate pathological state of the psyche that requires correction, in contrast to melancholy.

Freud - pioneer of psychological analysis

Sigmund Freud believed that melancholy is associated either with the loss of a loved one, or with the loss of an intangible object, attachment to which is comparable in strength to love for a person. This could be homeland, honor, work, etc. That is, he considered such a state solely as a psychological reaction, in isolation from physiological aspects.

Of course, according to Freud, depression and melancholy are associated with libido. He was the first psychiatrist to recognize the critical importance of sexuality in human life, but his emphasis on this aspect of human relationships is at times excessive. Perhaps this was a consequence of the lifestyle adopted in those years. Puritan prudishness led to sexual dissatisfaction, especially for women who were deprived of the opportunity for “illegitimate” release, for example, visiting representatives of the oldest profession. And, as a result, Dr. Freud’s patients demonstrated psychological problems, necessarily complicated by sexual dysfunction. Such a statistical selection could affect the results of the scientist’s research.

Melancholy as a feeling of loss

According to Sigmund Freud, melancholy is an illness associated with the loss of a loved one or some intangible value of exceptional significance and, as a consequence, the inability to realize the libido associated with these objects. In the light of Freud's theory, the phrase “love of country” takes on a special, incomparable meaning.

A patient suffering from melancholia subconsciously realizes the need to renounce libido, but also subconsciously resists this as a process unnatural for the human psyche.

The true background

Melancholia is a condition accompanied by the patient's self-deprecation, auto-aggression, contempt and self-hatred. The patient speaks about himself in an extremely impartial manner, feels sorry for those who are forced to communicate with such an unworthy person, sometimes hurts himself or even decides to attempt suicide. Freud considered such manifestations as transferred aggression. In fact, the patient’s rejection is not caused by himself, but by the person or object that was lost. But the mind, knowing that the loss is something important, valuable and deeply loved, suppresses manifestations of discontent and aggression. It is not possible to completely cope with emotions, and then the subconscious simply switches them to another object - to the patient himself.

The Dangers of Major Depression

That is why black melancholy is a dangerous condition for the patient. Doctors of the past used this term to describe deep depression leading to thoughts of suicide. The desire to punish oneself, to destroy oneself is actually a desire to take revenge on a lost valuable object, to punish it for its betrayal in the form of disappearance.

This approach is somewhat one-sided; it does not cover conditions caused by purely physiological factors (postpartum depression) or circumstances of unbearable severity (various types of post-traumatic syndromes). But in a number of cases, indeed, it is precisely the reasons described by Freud that explain such phenomena as depression and melancholy. The description of this condition given by the father of modern psychoanalysis is extremely accurate. Depressed mood, absorption in oneself, in one's own experiences, detachment from the outside world, dissatisfaction with oneself, self-hatred, insomnia and apathy - all these are classic signs of this type of disorder.

Fighting oppression

The cure for melancholy, according to Freud, is, first of all, a thorough analysis of the reasons that led to this condition, and the patient's awareness of the true realities of the disease. Freud believed that melancholia is the result of some narcissistic personality. In a certain sense, it manifests itself as a loss of self-respect and self-love. The patient willingly scolds himself, draws the attention of others to his shortcomings, real or imaginary, and sticks them out. But the real loss of self-esteem is not experienced so demonstrably. A person who is disappointed in himself is not at all inclined to notify everyone about it. Therefore, in reality, the basis of melancholy and depression is not dissatisfaction with oneself, but dissatisfaction with a foreign object; it is this that is actually scolded and reproached.

The task of the psychiatrist is, together with the patient, to find an opportunity to restore the integrity of the individual, to lead to reconciliation between the person and the lost object that caused such a storm of feelings.

Mania

Freud called mania a state opposite to melancholy - joyful uncontrollable excitement, similar to a state of intoxication. A person who wins a huge amount of money will also “lose himself” - he will behave inappropriately to the circumstances, overly affective and intrusive. This will be caused, in fact, by a similar circumstance - the past life of a lucky person will be “destroyed” by a win, just as the life of a melancholic person will be “destroyed” by a loss. But the melancholic person has lost the pleasant, necessary factors of his life, and the person in a state of mania, on the contrary, has gotten rid of difficulties and worries.

But a logical question arises: “What about the state of disappointment that sometimes comes after such large gifts of fortune, when a dream come true leads to depression and awareness of one’s own uselessness?”

Melancholy and depression outside concept

However, this is probably already nit-picking. Freud did a great job, for the first time describing the importance of many mental processes that had not previously received the attention of medicine. You cannot expect a detailed, completely comprehensive answer from him on any issue related to psychology or psychiatry. Depression and melancholy are serious psychological problems that can lead to extremely unpleasant consequences. Freud did a lot to ensure that society paid attention to this and stopped considering such states to be simply a whim or the blues.

Of course, followers in the study of melancholy studied it in more detail, classified and typologized it. They have developed many effective methods for psychologically overcoming this state, and have created chemicals that allow one to overcome pathological depression. Not all forms of depression can be treated only by conversations with psychologists; often the patient requires drug treatment in the form of antidepressants. But all this would be impossible if melancholy were still considered simply a bad mood.

In classical art

A condition such as melancholy attracts the attention of not only specialists in the field of psychology and psychiatry, but also creative people. Many descriptions that can be included in medical textbooks are available in classical literature.

For example, the experiences of Dostoevsky’s characters often boil down to melancholy. Anna Karenina's condition, so carefully described by Tolstoy, is precisely oppression, complicated by taking drugs - morphine. This was the reason for the woman's suicide. Tolstoy was not a psychiatrist, and at that time melancholy was not identified as a separate disorder. But he knew and understood people, and he showed the stages of development of despondency in a young, blossoming woman with surgical precision. Exactly at the same time, Flaubert achieved the same effect in Madame Bovary. The sluggish depression of the main character, which was interrupted with the beginning of the novel and flared up again with its end, led to a tragic denouement.

In modern literature

The condition in question has not been deprived of the attention of modern writers. Ryu Murakami's novel Melancholia is a thoughtful story of the seduction of a woman. This plot serves as the basis for describing the hero’s experiences and analyzing the emotions he experiences.

Ray Bradbury is the author of the collection of short stories A Cure for Melancholy. True, it says little about the disorder itself; Bradbury is not the author who is characterized by melancholy. But stories will be good as a remedy for sadness, that’s true. Moreover, the author does not follow the path of classical opposition: “Sad? Let's make you laugh." No. Bradbury is much more subtle. His stories, beautiful, bright, full of love for life and people, allow you to do more than just take a break for five minutes to laugh. They give a piece of spiritual warmth, the inner energy of the author, and allow one to cope with sadness in the same way that fire allows one to warm up in order to cope with the cold.

In cinema

Lars von Trier paid a lot of attention to this state of affairs in cinema. He made his film “Melancholia” based on personal experiences - the director came up with the idea during a course of psychotherapy aimed at combating depression. The lead actress, Kirsten Dunst, was also treated for depression, an experience she used in her work on the role.

Trier's film Melancholia tells the story of personal disaster against the backdrop of the apocalypse. A young woman is having a hard time breaking up with her fiancé; she cannot cope with the overwhelming feeling of disappointment in life and despair. But the days in which her depression occurs are the last days of the existence of humanity. A planet called “Melancholia” by scientists is moving towards Earth; this collision will destroy all life, a catastrophe is inevitable. Transparent allusion is a murderous melancholy that destroys humanity. Combined with Von Trier's idiosyncratic, slow-paced style, this made the film controversial. For some, it was too simple, and the associations it evoked were too obvious. To some, on the contrary, what was happening seemed too pretentious and far-fetched. That is why viewers' opinions of the film range from "brilliant" to "boring", from "delightful parable" to "vague nonsense." But despite mixed reviews, Melancholia was highly praised by critics. The film was awarded prizes from the European Film Academy, the Cannes Film Festival, the Saturn and Golden Eagle awards, etc.

Arthouse

Another film dedicated to this disorder is “The Incredible Melancholy.” An arthouse movie about a girl who is sincerely attached to an old, cracked doll that looks like a mannequin. The girl is lonely, and this doll replaces her close friend. But the heroine meets a young man and turns her warmth to him. But it turns out that the doll also has feelings. There is a lot of melancholy in this film. Moreover, it is not clear who suffers more: the guy, the girl, or the unfortunate doll that has become unnecessary.

encyclopedic Dictionary

Melancholy

an outdated name for depression.

Efremova's Dictionary

Melancholy

1. and.
   1. :
      1. Gloomy mood.
      2. Sadness, melancholy, despondency.
   2. outdated A mental disorder characterized by a depressed, depressed state or mood; depression.

Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language (Alabugina)

Melancholy

AND, and.

Painfully depressed state; melancholy, despondency.

* Fall into melancholy. *

|| adj. melancholic, oh, oh.

* Melancholy mood. *

Ozhegov's Dictionary

MELANCH ABOUT LIYA, And, and. Painfully depressed state, melancholy, blues. Fall into melancholy.

| adj. melancholic, oh, oh. Melancholy mood.

Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language

Melancholy

Italian – melancolia.

Latin – melancholia (spilling of black bile).

Greek – melacholia (spilling of black bile, melancholy).

The word “melancholy”, meaning “gloomy mood”, “state of deep depression”, was probably borrowed from the Latin language in the 17th century.

Derivatives: melancholic, melancholic.

Ushakov's Dictionary

Melancholy

melancholia, melancholy, pl. No, wives(from Greek melas - black and chole - bile) ( books).

1. Dejection, thoughtful melancholy, melancholy. “I drove out melancholy from hearts and instilled in them a disposition for good deeds.” Saltykov-Shchedrin.

2. A type of mental illness is a causeless depressed state, sometimes with delusional ideas ( honey.).

Black melancholy ( decomposition) - gloomy mood.

Dictionary of forgotten and difficult words of the 18th-19th centuries

Melancholy

, And , and.

Sadness, despondency, blues, gloomy mood.

* Zoya indulged in melancholy and was about to read Werther. // Turgenev. The day before //; A week later, General Korobin arrived and, with a pleasant melancholy in his looks and movements, took control of the entire estate into his own hands.. // Turgenev. Noble Nest // *

MELANCHOLIC.

* The melancholic Yakushkin seemed to silently draw his regicide dagger. // Pushkin. Eugene Onegin // *

MELANCHOLIC, ◘ BLACK MELANCHOLIA.

Philosophical Dictionary (Comte-Sponville)

Melancholy

Melancholy

♦ Melancolie

In antiquity - black humor (or black bile). Today the word is used in two main meanings. In everyday language, melancholy is a light and slightly vague sadness that does not have a specific subject, and therefore finds practically no consolation. In the psychiatric dictionary, melancholia is a pathological mood disorder characterized by deep sadness combined with anxiety, decreased self-esteem, slowed psychomotor functions and thoughts of suicide. Consequently, melancholy in both cases is incurable, but for different, even opposite reasons - it is either too mild or too severe; either too vague or too serious; or is too similar to the “norm” (melancholy in the popular understanding is not so much a disorder as a special temperament); or is too far from it. In its first variety it can even be pleasant (“Melancholy,” said Victor Hugo, “is the happiness of experiencing sadness”); in the second - never, because it entirely belongs to the competence of medicine and, in the absence of treatment, can lead to death. At the same time, a strict distinction cannot be made between the two described conditions: those with a melancholic temperament are not immune from psychosis and depression.

Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

Melancholy

(from μελας and κολος - black bile) - in Russian terminology, “dark insanity” is one of the characteristic types of mental disorder. The essence of mental changes in M. is that the subject is in a sad, depressed mood, unmotivated or insufficiently motivated by external circumstances, and that his mental activity is generally accompanied by unpleasant, painful torment. At the same time, ideas corresponding to a sad mood predominate in the mind; the patient’s imagination and memories are directed exclusively at unpleasant things and events, he sees everything in a gloomy color, nothing makes him happy, life becomes painful for him, incentives for activity weaken or completely disappear, he becomes sedentary, indifferent to his most important interests in life, considers the best The outcome is death, which is often carried out by suicide. In many other cases, on the basis of this depressed state of mind, absurd delusional ideas and deceptions of feeling arise. As for the former, they predominantly have the nature of self-accusation: patients accuse themselves of some misdemeanor or crime against religion or morality, often attribute to themselves absolutely fantastic, monstrous actions, and expect the same monstrous punishments for them. In addition to delusions of self-blame, there are also delusions of persecution or the so-called delusions of denial: there is nothing more, people disappear, the world and life are ending, etc. A special type of M. is made up of those cases in which the delusion is predominantly hypochondriacal in nature, for example, patients feel, that all the orifices of their bodies are overgrown, their intestines are rotting, their stomachs have collapsed, they have become wooden, glass, turned into animals, and so on. Deceptions of the senses, for the most part, in their content, are in accordance with the ideas of delirium: patients hear curses, the moaning of children, the rattling of chains, they see preparations for execution, the corpses of their relatives, they smell carrion, sulfur, and snakes crawling through the body. Both in those cases where M. occurs exclusively in the form of an unreasonable depressed state, and when the consciousness is filled with the listed ideas of delirium and hallucinations, at times patients are subjected to attacks of severe melancholy with fear and motor excitement, and under the influence of these attacks sometimes fall into frenzy (raptus melancholicus). Regardless of this, M. is generally accompanied by a decrease in general nutrition, both due to insufficient appetite and refusal of food, and due to painful changes in the processes of absorption, metabolism and blood circulation. Most often, there is also persistent insomnia. With one of the varieties of M. (the so-called melancholia attonita), complete immobility and muscle numbness are observed for a long time. Very often, M. does not constitute an independent mental illness, but only an episode, one of the stages of a complex mental disorder, for example, circular, periodic insanity, mania, etc.; then it does not last long and is replaced by other symptoms. In those cases when M. is a mental, independent disease, it always lasts at least 8-10 months, and then the patient can completely recover. If recovery does not occur, then M. either becomes chronic or transforms into secondary dementia, and the disease becomes incurable. In any case, with a long course of M., the intensity of sad affect and mental pain gradually decreases. A significant proportion of patients with M. die from suicide or from general exhaustion due to malnutrition. With a prolonged course, M. predisposes to the development of pulmonary consumption. The causes of M. coincide with the causes of mental illness in general. Treatment is best done in special institutions.